THE MONKEY SYNDROME

Dr. Charles Jagun

With the recent destruction nay carnage that took place across the country, it will be a disaster for us as a people not to sit back, reevaluate our “being” as Nigerians, and to analyze what occurred critically and lessons learned for the immediate and the future transformation of our society as responsible citizens (bother as the governed and servant leaders).

As we are aware, so many videos of the actual events, the fake ones, and those that parodied different actions taken by the looters (both the upper-class and lower-class) are rampant all over social media.

One such video that captivated my attention was the video of a group of monkeys feasting on a crate of bread or food freely provided to them; mind you, there was enough food in the basket for all.

I then compared the action of the monkeys, vis-à-vis the action of the lower level looters. That led me to look at the action of the monkeys in relation to the generality of Nigerian society.

A drive-by analysis of the monkeys’ action and the recent actions of the lower-class looters who stormed the various COVID-19 palliative warehouses and private facilities is a testimony to the high level of greed that permeates the entire country.

The story of greed exhibited by the lower-class of society mirrors the decadence and greed we find among society’s upper-class, with emphasis on the political class. A situation where the majority of the lower-class looters will storm warehouses and behave avariciously is a case of concern.

The lower level looters did not only take what they needed in the short term but also carted away what they did not need, what they couldn’t carry, while not leaving for others to take is a clear testimony of the “Monkey Syndrome” disease that resides in the innermost part of the people.

It was evident that the condition is already in the gene of the lower-class looters; the items found in the looted warehouses would have been enough for all the invading looters. The monkey spirit responsible for this disease must die if we must move forward as a nation.

The monkey syndrome metaphor is a big lesson that I hope is a key takeaway.

All stakeholders must-see and work assiduously towards killing the monkey spirit behind the monkey syndrome. It has become an open secret that the political elites who are meant to be our servants are a mere product of the monkey syndrome who have been entirely taken over by the Monkey spirit.

A situation where an average Nigerian from the lower- to the middle class will go into the government from having nothing to a position where at the end of 8 years, he/she comes out with mansions as privately owned properties while everyone living around is in a beggarly mode is the outcome of the monkey syndrome that has eaten deep into the fabric of those elites.

For a country that has been described as the poverty capital of the world to have legislators from state assemblies to the national assembly feeding fat off of the commonwealth of the people, albeit not only grabbing one or two for their immediate needs but colossal greed of emptying the treasury, also by systematically allocating millions to themselves in the name of allowances is the outcome the monkey syndrome fully on display for all to see.

The upper-class looters could care less about allowing the masses to partake or benefit from the nation’s resources, which are well enough to feed the entire country if judiciously distributed. Just like the monkeys, they grab and grab until the looted resources keeping falling from their overfilled arms.

The ex-governors (some call themselves leaders of democrats, though self-appointed) allocated millions (using their stooges in the state assemblies to rubber stamp illegality) to themselves as pensions and gratuity from the state meager resources are seriously possessed by the Monkey spirit with the attendant manifestations of monkey syndrome. The monkey spirit is far worse than the evil spirit that many religions are daily casting out from the people.

It is that monkey syndrome that has taken over the genes of the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed leading him to spew out the toxic product aka statement that the most important thing he learned from the entire episode of the last two weeks was how to control the social media (although he is a beneficiary of the social media) while pressing the mute button when the level of carnage from the corruption and destruction of the political class which far outweighs the same monkey syndrome afflicting the lower class.

The difference here is that the massacre caused by the ruling class is ongoing, and no concerted efforts to treat the root cause of the disease among the ruling upper-class.

The high level of insatiable greed is responsible for the decadence that we have in our beloved country.

The past weeks’ event is a wake-up call to every Nigerian to kill the monkey spirit in us to treat the monkey syndrome disease in order to move forward as a nation. We will not change if we refuse or cannot learn from the recent episode, but merely marking time for a greater tsunami.